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What Tessanne Chin teaches us about diversity

Tessanne Chin’s Toronto Jamaican connection

Tessanne Chin, second from right, at the University of West Indies Ball at the Ritz Carlton Toronto with, from left, patron Raymond Chang, Ruth Ann Onley, Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley and Donette Chin-Loy. (TONY WONG / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

When the four superstar coaches of The Voice talent show battled over who would get Tessanne Chin on their team, they couldn’t get over the fact that someone who was of Chinese descent could talk, well, like a Jamaican.

Or at least better Jamaican patois than our own Toronto mayor.

“It’s mi bread and buttah back home” she explained about how she supported herself in Jamaica by playing music.

“Can you just talk to us?” squealed Christina Aguilera.

Canada is a land of hyphenated Canadians, so it’s no surprise to many of us that this kind of diversity exists. Chin has given heightened attention to a tiny diaspora — a minority within a minority — that has made a significant impact belying its size. And not just in Jamaica.

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Actually, Toronto has one of the largest Chinese-Jamaican populations outside the island nation.

If you’ve ever visited the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum, you’d see the Brampton billionaire’s philanthropy at work. Or been fortunate to be treated by Herbert Ho Ping Kong, a celebrated medical professor considered to be Canada’s real life version of House. And many Ryerson scholars have been handed their graduation certificates by philanthropist and former chancellor Raymond Chang, who has donated millions to the university and whose name adorns the school of continuing education.

“Being born in Jamaica, race was never an issue. It was always about the type of person I wanted to be, not the colour of my skin. For me, I am the definition of out of many one people,” Chin said to the Star. “I really hold on to my culture because it is what made me.”

Chin is the first Asian and the first Jamaican to win The Voice, which also happens to be one of the top 10 most watched programs in Canada.

Aguilera and fellow coaches would be in linguistic seventh heaven at the postmodern Bridle Path home of Chang and his wife Donette Chin-Loy on a recent weeknight. The Jamaican patois was flying thick. In attendance at the private party were supporters of the University of the West Indies, which was honouring Chin.

(The next day, Chang would throw a spotlight on the community after a spontaneous $40,000 bidding war with Lee-Chin to get Chin to sing.)

Chin had arrived straight from an airplane ride from Kingston. It was the first time she had been in Toronto, despite the fact that her husband was born here and some of her family members are Canadian.

“I know, isn’t it crazy that I haven’t been here before?” said Chin, prepared for the cold with a gauzy scarf around her neck and a jacket layered over a black top.

Chin’s in-laws had already been staying with the Changs for several weeks.

“Thank God for this party, otherwise I don’t think I’d have seen you,” said Chin’s father-in-law, Michael Anthony Cuffe, a Jamaican broadcaster giving her a hug. Remarkably, this was the first time he had seen Chin since she won The Voice in December.

“She is on a crazy schedule,” says Cuffe.

Chin’s husband, Michael Jr., couldn’t make it, after maxing out his vacation with Chin’s recent White House appearance to sing for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Keeping her company at the hotel was her childhood friend Sarah Zachariah.

“It’s an enormous suite. You should see the size of it,” said the pleasant University of Waterloo graduate student.

“She’s like me likkle sistah,” Chin said.

And just in case she got homesick, Voice fan and Ritz general manager Tim Terceira made sure Chin felt welcome with a chocolate CN Tower in her room and a basketful of Jamaican goodies, including her favourite plantain chips.

Why has Chin had such an appeal with viewers? Apart from a remarkable voice, the 28-year-old enthralled coaches and voters with a heaping dose of humility, a rare commodity in a business of self-promotion. Or as Jamaicans call it, to “big up yuh-self.”

And while the Chinese are perhaps better known for their contributions in areas such as medicine and finance, Chin has shone a light on the arts.

The reality is, Jamaica is a diverse society and the Chinese have been part of the fabric for many years. And that includes music. Bob Marley’s early producer was Leslie Kong.

Chin-Loy’s father Lloyd started the legendary Aquarius Records in Kingston where Jimmy Cliff and Stevie Wonder would record. And I thought it was perfectly normal growing up listening to a Chinese guy playing ska on the radio with the sound of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

The Chinese diaspora isn’t limited to Jamaica, of course. My cousins come from Trinidad and Dutch Guyana. And anyone who has eaten at a Hakka Indian restaurant in Toronto knows there is a thriving Chinese community in India.

The bottom line is that diversity is a complex, beautiful thing, and you could do worse to have an ambassador like Chin who shrinks cultural boundaries just by opening her mouth.

“My mom always said if you have a gift it is absolutely not about you. So I don’t get twisted and think for one second it’s all about me,” said Chin, nursing a drink in Chang’s expansive kitchen.

Of course, there are no guarantees. Celebrity can warp the most robust value system. As she gets more popular — and that’s not a sure thing given the spotty history of reality talent shows — maybe that famous sense of self-deprecation will crack. She may even pull a Kanye West and interrupt an awards show, or pee in public like Justin Bieber. But given her talent and track record, the odds, thankfully, seem slim.

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